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Make a Brush Pile - PEP BB animal.sand.pile

BB animal care - sand badge
posted 6 years ago
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This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the sand badge in Animal Care.

In this Badge Bit you will create a brush pile that is at least five feet tall and five feet wide.



Here is some general information on the topic:
 - Maintaining and Enhancing Wildlife Habitats

Here are some articles on it:
 - Habitat Piles for Wildlife
 - Brush Piles for Wildlife Habitat
 - Brush Piles for Backyard Habitat
 - Brush Piles in Ecosystem Gardening
 - Brush Piles for Birds







To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
 - you must make a brush pile at least five feet tall and five feet wide
 - dense enough that you can't see through the pile

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
 - post a picture of a location without a brush pile
 - post a picture of the brush pile under construction
 - post a picture of the completed brush pile at that same spot that is obviously at least five feet tall and five feet wide
COMMENTS:
 
Leif Ing
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posted 6 years ago
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Approved submission
My brush pile critter hotel, from limbs taken off last week. Used about 1 1/2 trees worth of limbs roughly from the trees we cut and peeled last week.

Two views of the finished pile, mostly gathered from whatever limbs were closest. Also put the bark peelings scattered throughout... maybe they’ll stay a bit drier when it’s raining outside!
brush-pile-critter-hotel.jpeg
brush pile critter hotel
brush pile critter hotel
3178E1AE-DDD8-4724-A768-86F9FB2D793C.jpeg
brush pile critter hotel
brush pile critter hotel
773F228B-9F78-4990-A695-7BBDE42649C7.jpeg
brush pile critter hotel
brush pile critter hotel
Staff note (Mike Barkley) :

I certify this BB is complete.

 
Mike Haasl
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posted 6 years ago
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I made a brush pile today at the 2019 PEP1 event.  I took the branches from a large fir that I cut down earlier in the week and hauled them uphill to Jocelyn and Paul's back yard to a place where they wanted a brushy wall.  Daryl had a pile going to the left of mine so together they will make for lots of habitat.  Final size is a bit over 5' high and wide and about 10-15' long.  I arranged all the branches on the downhill side so the view from the yard is prettier.
20190531_102743_resized.jpg
[Thumbnail for 20190531_102743_resized.jpg]
Pile almost done
20190531_103025_resized.jpg
[Thumbnail for 20190531_103025_resized.jpg]
All done :)
20190531_094535_resized.jpg
[Thumbnail for 20190531_094535_resized.jpg]
Needs a pile

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Staff note (paul wheaton) :

I certify that this BB is complete!

 
Diane Kistner
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posted 6 years ago
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Dave Burton wrote:
To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
 - post a picture of a location without a brush pile
 - post a picture of the  brush pile under construction
 - post a picture of the completed brush pile at that same spot that is obviously at least five feet tall and five feet wide



Oh, goodness! I could have earned this badge five times over. But I'm not moving the giant brush piles to take the before/during/after photos! LOL!

 
jared strand
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posted 6 years ago
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Yeah, if the pile is built it's obvious you didn't just stumble upon it.  I don't know about 5 feet high either, I have thinned small forests and had a pile 40x40 and it was maybe 6 feet high.  I tend to throw branches the same way, so they create a tight weave.  If it's too open it will collapse to nothing pretty quick.  
 
Robin Katz
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posted 6 years ago
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We just created a lot of these piles in the past month, then chipped them for putting back on the soil and the garden beds. Good thing we still have a few thousand trees yet to thin out of the forest.
 
paul wheaton
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posted 6 years ago
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Robin Katz wrote:We just created a lot of these piles in the past month, then chipped them for putting back on the soil and the garden beds. Good thing we still have a few thousand trees yet to thin out of the forest.



The function of these brush piles is to not chip or burn them - but to leave them for years to come to facilitate wildlife habitat.  Specifically, the critters that will protect your growies from unwanted critters.

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Robin Katz
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posted 6 years ago
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Paul,

I understand that part, and we will be making some of these for the wildlife now that I see how beneficial they are (although I still needed the chips for soil building). I like the idea of other uses for brush than burning it, which is what everyone does around here. Waste of good biomass.
 
jared strand
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posted 6 years ago
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Hmm, my brush piles have always attracted the animals that eat my garden- namely, rabbits and woodchucks. I still make brush piles though...just don't think to document the process..
 
paul wheaton
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When sepp holzer has a problem with a critter, he puts out lots of goodies to attract the problem critter.  It turns out that that also attracts the predators of that critter.

my kickstarter is now live!

 
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